iPhone 4 teardown

We were surprised that the A4 processor (its naked body displayed for the world this past April) contained within the iPhone 4 had 512MB of ram, compared to the 256MB of the iPad. Other features include the 1420mAh battery (201mAh more than the 3Gs), 5MP rear camera and front VGA camera, and the use of micro-sim.

Frankly, we don’t see ourselves getting the device immediately, but how excited are you for the iPhone 4?

I do like the improvements they have made and this version puts me closer to opting for the iphone than previous versions.
Not “true” multi-tasking STILL???
It restarts the other app everytime.
I have to say Apple is so dense on this one and the announcement of true flash for Android are the two deal breakers on this one for me STILL.
Otherwise, nice piece of hardware Apple and once the hacking community gets a hold of it then I may switch to the darkside yet, but not for the moment STILL.

meh, why does multitasking have to be “true”? if it is seamless to the end user experience, who cares if the app is actually running in the background or not? it actually seems smarter to me to implement faux multitasking in 99% of cases. also, STILL.

“In a departure from the design of the 3G and 3GS, removing the screws releases the rear case, not the front glass.” So this is the first Apple Phone that allows customers to easily replace the battery!

The non-multitasking is a design constraint that makes it impossible for a background app to run down your battery. It also forces apps to save state whenever something changes, so a user “save” isn’t required and they are quite crash resistant.

maybe im oldschool or whatever but i still think a phone is for comunication and if you want to make pretty pictures you should get a camera anything else just get a netbook no really whats all the fuss about those iphones i dont get it (and therefore never will buy one)….
but still nice feats of engeneering

People actually do use these features and you do not always have a camera with you when you want to take a picture. At least you have something to do this with when the moment arises. Now that said, I would take any Android phone over this any day of the week. Apple likes to lock you in to their box and not let you out…..EVER. I am not an Apple hater either. I love Macs but I also have many PC’s. I think Apple is making a number of mistakes with limiting the user experience to what Apple thinks it should be. Will this hurt iPhone sales? NO. The sheep will continue to buy what they are told to buy.

If you read any of the reviews (the Engadget one addresses this particularly well), the new antennas made from the side of the phone cut down significantly on dropped calls, despite AT&T’s abysmal network.

Besides not being even a crack open, it’s also has no keyboard. I really dislike on screen keyboards. Also, they expect me to take of my gloves in the winter to answer a phone call?

I agree with most though that a ‘dumbphone’ is better if you are mainly concerned about making calls. I’m a bit nervous having a $500+ piece of hardware in my pocket too. data plans are getting a bit more reasonable in canada which may change my mind when I find something open I like.

I don’t understand why a person would pay over $1000 a year for a phone. It really blows my mind. I pay about that much for TV, Phone, and Internet for my entire 5 person house hold. I don’t think the convenience and “beauty” of the iphone justify the ridiculous cost of the plans. There is free wifi almost everywhere now a days. My $80 gps with WM does everything I need it to do including internet, traffic, movie player, mp3..etc with no monthly plan. I’ll stop now before I get into a rant about the cost of text messages…

@Chris…
a smartphone that will last through a weekend?
My UNLOCKED Nokia E63 needs charging every three days of INTENSIVE use.
E71 (with GPS) is equally equipped.
regarding the IPhone, well… Not yet.
I don’t like being forced to use a particular company or plan.
Nice toy, though, just like my IPod Touch (AKA IPad nano)

dext0rb: maybe it is the videos of it I have seen, but when you tap to go back to the other app, there is a load bar and there you are. I don’t see how, with discrete, approved-app only policies and code stolen from unix, that they still can’t pull it off or is it just for the next iPhone release in November?
I am not discounting your point at all. It is good for battery life and IF it is seamless, then that is cool. I could see this as a marketing ploy by apple later on now that the hardware is ironed out again for a bit lol. Thanks for the input :)

The “sheeps” are going to keep buying because they don’t consider it locked down. Why should they when the thing fulfills everything they want and with style? You, and by you I mean the visitors of HAD, are on the fringe of the demand spectrum. Apple recognizes that and that is why they are selling so well. Most people aren’t engineers and don’t care for the extra functionality and the hassle that comes with it. What they do value is the user experience and the quality of the features they can/do use. Personally, I am more tempted to buy one but I’d rather not pay $360 or $600 overhead of the capped data plans and keep my week long charge of my dumbphone.

I like the apple hardware and software, I’m not a big fan of AT&T in general though. I’m stuck with T-mobile because thats what my whole family has and I like to have unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. If apple ever releases an unlocked gsm iPhone in the US, I would be all over it. When my 2 year contract with T-mobile is up, I may switch to AT&T and get an iPhone. the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard is much better that the one on myTouch.

As far as I know, the Android system has been doing something similar since it came out.

Most applications consists of “pages” that the code moves back and forward through, much like a website. However, once it’s finished generating, it effectively goes on “standby” until input is detected (via a callbacks or “intents”, I think). To achieve an actual background application (like a media player), you have to write a service.

The advantage of this method, imho?

For (a stupid) example, say something is taking a while to download inside an app. You decide that it’d be a good idea to go run off and check mail.

Fruit: You *SUSPEND* the app that’s downloading. You check your mail. You come back. Your download resumes (or is reset, since connection lost)
Android: You switch out the download. You check your mail while the download is still running (lower priority, presumably). You come back. Your download is closer to completion / completed.

As a developer, why would I write a background task for something that might come up only once in a while?

However, as it was said before… It doesn’t matter. iPhone didn’t really need multitasking. I mean, look how popular they are anyway. They could sell a shiny iCrap and people would buy it. I don’t care. I don’t buy it. I did, however, hope that Palm would have sold better. We could have used a 4th party to compete.

Have you checked out Swype keyboard? http://swypeinc.com/
I got the beta yesterday and I’m not looking back.

You do realize that Android phones can be (almost) completely customized, right? You can replace the stock dialer, SMS handler, media player, keyboard, home screen, and market apps. You could also replace the OS too, but that’s a totally different story =P

@golddigger: not possible on 1st gen iPhones or iTouches. Steve dropped support for these two devices. There is a team that is supposedly working on porting iOS4 to these devices, but it looks like just another scam. Time to upgrade ;D